The following includes select facts from life science history, both global and Massachusetts state specific,
that help explain the origins of the state's life science industry. Please note that these facts are part of a much larger state-specific
history database that will be launched in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to learn about the scientists behind
the discoveries, the entrepreneurs, philanthropists, political leaders, and significant events, institutions
and companies that are the foundation of the life science industry in the state of Massachusetts.
If you are aware of a notable event, person, organization/company or accomplishment that we should include,
please e-mail us at: Suggestions@InfoResource.org
1636 -- Harvard University was founded.
In 1636, Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the U.S., was founded and named for
the college's first benefactor, John Harvard a minister from Charlestown. Upon his death in 1638, Harvard left half
his estate to the institution established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Seven U.S. presidents – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy and George W. Bush – graduated from Harvard.
In 1782, The Harvard Medical School was founded. Today,
the Harvard Medical School is one of the leading medical research intitutions in the U.S. and more than a dozen current
and former faculty have received Nobel Prizes in Medicine.
1848 -- American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded.
American Association for the Advancement of Science founded in 1848
marked the emergence of a national scientific community in the United States, and was the first organization
established to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of
all its disciplines.
Today, the AAAS serves nearly 300 affiliated societies and academies of science and publishes the
peer-reviewed general science journal Science. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance
science and serve society" through initiatives that include science policy, international programs, science education,
and public understanding of science.
1859 -- Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species."
In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"
in which he postulated his theory of evolution that explained how the diverse of
species on Earth evolved from a simple, singled-celled ancestor.
Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly
and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability
to adapt to its environment. Darwin's theory of evolution remains the foundation of modern
biology.
1861 -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Founded.
In 1861, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
was founded through the efforts of William Barton Rogers formerly chair of natural philosophy at the
University of Virginia. Rogers served as president of MIT from 1862-1870, and a second term from 1879-1881.
MIT has a long tradition of working on practical problems affecting the society and the economy, and in
recent years has become a leader in developing collaborative partnerships with industry, including significant biotechnology
research collaborations with Amgen (1994), DuPont (1997) and Merk (1997). Today, MIT is one of the leading research
intitutions in the U.S., and sixty-one current or former members of the MIT community have won the Nobel
Prize, including twelve in chemistry and eight in medicine/physiology.
1865 -- Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, presented his laws of heredity.
Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian considered the father of modern genetics,
conducted crossbreeding experiments with pea plants between 1856 and 1863. Through this work,
he established many of the rules of heredity.
"In 1859 I obtained a very fertile descendant with large, tasty seeds from a first generation
hybrid. Since in the following year, its progeny retained the desirable characteristics
and were uniform, the variety was cultivated in our vegetable garden, and many plants were
raised every year up to 1865. (Gregor Mendel to Carl Nägeli, April 1867).
1887 -- Marine Hospital Service Hygienic Laboratory (National Institutes of Health) was founded.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) traces its roots to 1887,
when a one-room laboratory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the
U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The MHS was established in 1798 to provide for the medical care of
merchant seamen -- charged by Congress with examining passengers on arriving ships for clinical signs of
infectious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever, to prevent epidemics.
During the 1870s and 1880s, scientists in Europe presented compelling evidence that microscopic organisms
were the causes of several infectious diseases, and MHS officials closely followed these developments.
In 1887, Joseph Kinyoun, a MHS physician trained in the new bacteriological
methods, set up a one-room laboratory in the Marine Hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island,
New York. Kinyoun called this facility a "laboratory of hygiene" in imitation of German facilities, and within
a few months, he identified the cholera bacillus and used his Zeiss microscope to
demonstrate it to his colleagues as confirmation of their clinical diagnoses
(Photo: courtesy of the NIH Almanac).
1896 -- Deaconess Hospital was founded.
In 1896 as part of their missionary charter, Methodist deaconesses founded Deaconess Hospital to care for the
city's residents, and in 1916, Beth Israel Hospital was established by the Boston Jewish community to meet the needs of
the growing immigrant population. In 1996, the Beth Israel Hospital merged with the New England Deaconess Hospital to form
the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
Today, BIDMC is one of the three major teaching hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School,
and is renowned for excellence in surgery, and treatment of cardiac conditions, cancer, and pulmonary and thoracic
disorders; and expertise in neurosciences, gastroenterology and liver disease, obstetrics and women's health,
podiatry, and emergency and trauma medicine. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox.
Among independent teaching hospitals, BIDMC is the fourth-largest
recipient of biomedical research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Research funding totals
nearly $150 million annually. BIDMC researchers run more than 1,000 active sponsored projects and 200 clinical trials.
BIDMC also shares important clinical and research programs with institutions such as the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer
Center, the Joslin Diabetes Center and Children's Hospital.
1902 -- The Biologics Control Act was established.
The Biologics Control Act, established in 1902, had major consequences for the Hygienic Laboratory. It charged
the laboratory with regulating the production of vaccines and antitoxins, making it a regulatory agency
four years before passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The danger posed by biological products that had
emerged from bacteriologic discoveries resulted from their production in animals and their administration by
injection. In 1901, thirteen children in St. Louis died after receiving diphtheria antitoxin contaminated
with tetanus spores. This tragedy spurred Congress to pass the Biologics Control Act, and between 1903-1907
standards were established and licenses issued to pharmaceutical firms for making smallpox and rabies vaccines,
diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, and various other antibacterial antisera. (In 1972, responsibility
for regulation of biologics was transferred to the Food and Drug Administration).
The Marine Hospital Service (MHS), established in 1798, was reorganized in 1912
and renamed the Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS was authorized to conduct research into
noncontagious diseases and into the pollution of streams and lakes in the U.S. During
World War I, the PHS attended primarily to sanitation of areas around military bases in the
U.S., and when the 1918 influenza pandemic struck Washington, physicians from the
laboratory were pressed into service treating patients in the District of Columbia because
so many local doctors had fallen ill.
1918 -- Spanish Influenza Pandemic.
It is estimated that between 25 and 40 million people died
from the the influenza outbreak that began in 1918, swept across America in a week and
around the world in three months. In all, between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans
--civilians and soldiers-- died from the influenza, more than were lost in World War I,
II, and the Korean and Viet Nam wars combined.
Influenza had broken out at the Receiving Ship on August 28, and within a week there
were over two-dozen cases among sailors stationed there. Soon, the disease spread to
other nearby naval installations and shipyards, and by mid-September it had infected nearly
two thousand of the 21,000 sailors stationed in the Boston area. Cases among Boston’s
civilian population soon appeared. Initial civilian cases were reported on or about
September 11. By September 16, there were hundreds of influenza cases in the city.
By mid-October, over 3,500 Bostonians had died from influenza or pneumonia since the
start of the epidemic.
In the end, Boston lost 4,794 of its residents to epidemic influenza and pneumonia
in the fall of 1918 alone. Combined with the winter 1919 epidemic wave, Boston experienced
an excess death rate of 710 per 100,000 residents, making it one of the worst hit cities
in the United States. Only Pittsburgh and Philadelphia fared worse.
1930 -- The name of the Hygienic Laboratory was changed to the National Institute of Health.
In 1930, the Ransdell Act changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute
of Health (NIH) and authorized the establishment of fellowships for research into basic biological and medical
problems. The roots of this act extended to 1918, when chemists who had worked with the Chemical Warfare
Service in World War I sought to establish an institute in the private sector to apply fundamental knowledge
in chemistry to problems of medicine.
1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his
chromosome theory of heredity.
Thomas Hunt Morgan pioneered the new science of genetics through experimental
research with the fruit fly (Drosophila), laying the foundations for the future of biology. On
the basis of fly-breeding experiments he demonstrated that genes are linked in a series on
chromosomes and that they determine indentifiable, hereditary traits.
1937 -- The National Cancer Institute was created.
In 1937, the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) was created with sponsorship from every Senator in Congress, and was authorized
to award grants to nonfederal scientists for research on cancer and to fund fellowships at NCI for young
researchers.
Today, the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the federal government's
principal agency for cancer research and training.
1944 -- Public Health Service Act was established.
The 1944 Public Health Service Act defined the shape of medical research in the post-war world.
The entire NIH budget expanded from $8 million in 1947 to more than $1 billion in
1966, now fondly remembered as "the golden years" of NIH expansion. The 1944 PHS Act
authorized NIH to conduct clinical research, and after the war Congress provided funding to
build a research hospital, now called the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center on the
NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Center which opened in 1953 with 540 beds
was designed to bring research laboratories into close proximity with hospital wards in
order to promote productive collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians.
The NIH today, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency
for conducting and supporting medical research and is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, providing
leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.
1947 -- Transistor was invented at AT&T's Bell Laboratories.
The transistor, the invention that marked the dawn of the
information age, was invented by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Bardeen,
Shockley and Brattain were awarded the 1956
Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the transistor effect.
Transistors have become an invisible technology that is
part of almost every electronic device. Every major information age innovation was made
possible by the transistor and its application can be found all around us.
1947 -- Children's Cancer Research Foundation (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) was founded.
In 1947, the late Sidney Farber, MD, founded a Children's Cancer Research Foundation dedicated to providing
children with cancer with compassionate, state-of-the-art treatment and simultaneously developing the cancer
preventatives, treatments, and cures of the future. The Institute officially expanded its programs to include
patients of all ages in 1969, and in 1974 became known as the Sidney Farber Cancer Center in honor of its founder.
Charles A. Dana Sr. was an attorney, legislator, industrialist, and philanthropist. As founder of the Charles A.
Dana Foundation, he directed funding to advance programs in healthcare and higher education. The Institute
acknowledged its generous, long-term support from the Dana Foundation by incorporating the Dana name into
its official title in 1983.
Beginning in the early 1950s, and continuing until his death in 1973, Farber became a star presenter at
Congressional hearings on appropriations for cancer research. Animated, with a flair for the dramatic anecdote
and poignant case history, Farber made a compelling speaker. With Mary Woodard Lasker, a longtime advocate of
biomedical research, famed surgeon Michael DeBakey, Senator Lester Hill of Louisiana and Congressman John
Fogarty of Rhode Island, Farber led a massive expansion in federal spending for cancer research. Between 1957 and 1967,
the annual budget of the National Cancer Institute, the government's primary funding arm for cancer study,
jumped from $48 million to $176 million.
Today, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute employs about 3,000
people supporting more than 150,000 patient visits a year, is involved in some 200 clinical trials, and is
internationally renowned for its blending of research and clinical excellence.
1952 -- Joslin Clinic was founded.
In 1898, Elliott P. Joslin, M.D., opened a private practice on Beacon Street in Boston that in 1952 became
formally known as Joslin Clinic. Dr. Joslin's associates included
Howard Root, M.D., Alexander Marble, M.D., and Robert Bradley, M.D. (all three became Joslin Presidents), his
son Allen P. Joslin, M.D., Leo Krall, M.D. (who held the position of President of the International Diabetes
Federation) and Priscilla White, M.D., known for her pioneering work with children and pregnant women.
In 1958, the Joslin Clinic moved to its current location adjacent to New England Deaconess Hospital
(Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), and in 1968 the Joslin Clinic merged with The Diabetes Foundation,
and was renamed Joslin Diabetes Foundation. Renamed Joslin Diabetes Center in 1981, the institution now
combines patient care, research and education into one single organization. Joslin Diabetes Center is an institution
on the front lines of the world epidemic of diabetes, leading the battle to conquer diabetes in all of its forms
through cutting-edge research and innovative approaches to clinical care and education.
1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA was revealed.
The double helix structure of DNA, the hereditary molecule is revealed by
two scientists, James D. Watson and Francis Crick. This is one of the key
discoveries of the century. Watson and Crick shared the 1962
Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries
concerning the molecular structure of nuclear acids and its significance for information
transfer in living material.
Jack Kilby, an engineer at
Texas Instruments shows only a transistor and other components on a slice of
germanium. This invention (7/16-by-1/16-inches in size), called an integrated
circuit, revolutionized the electronics industry. Kilby was awarded
the 2000 Nobel Prize in
Physics for his invention of the integrated circuit.
(Photo: Jack Kilby courtesy of Texas Instruments)
Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of
microchip technology. He headed teams that built both the first military system and the
first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented both the hand-held
calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals.
Mr. Kilby officially retired from TI in 1983, but he maintained a significant involvement
with the company throughout his life.
1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expanded the U.S. Space Program
Listen to President John F. Kennedy's speech in
his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on May 25, 1961 declared,
"...I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade
is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." This goal was
achieved when astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human to set foot upon the
Moon at 10:56 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969. Shown in the background are, (left) Vice
President Lyndon Johnson, and (right) Speaker of the House Sam T. Rayburn. The expansion of
the U.S. Space Program resulted in the development of a wide range of technology with
enormous benefit to human and animal kind.
(Photo: courtesy National Aeronautics & Space Administration)
1967 -- George Wald was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, American astronauts, made
history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon.
Listen to Neil Armstrong's first words as he steps onto the lunar
surface (66 kb .wav file). Photo: Courtesy of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration)
An important benefit of the Apollo Lunar Program and
other NASA programs is the ever-growing pipeline of technology that improves human and
veterinary healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics.
1969 -- Victor McKusick published "Mendelian Inheritance in Man".
Victor McKusick, widely acknowledged as the father of medical genetics, spent his career studying
the genetic basis of diseases and disorders with the belief that such an understanding could lead
to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. He studied, identified, and mapped genes responsible for
inherited conditions such as Marfan syndrome and dwarfism (specifically in Amish communities).
In 1969, he proposed the idea of mapping the human genome, over 30 years before the Human
Genome Project was established.
McKusick, a graduate of Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1946), spent his entire career there and founded
the Division of Medical Genetics in 1957, the first research center and clinic of its kind. In
1969 he published the 1st edition of his
book "Mendelian Inheritance of Man",
one of the most comprehensive collections of inherited disease genes. In 2002, McKusick received the
highest scientific honor in the U.S., the National Medal of Science.
1971 -- NASDAQ Stock Market was founded.
NASDAQ Stock Market was founded as the world's first electronic stock market by the
National Association of Securities Dealers. The NASDAQ system, created by the Bunker Ramos
Corp. allowed the financial community, for the first time, to determine which market
offered the best price on a given security.
1971 -- President Nixon declared war on cancer creating the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.
On Dec. 23, 1971, the National Cancer Act of 1971, enacted by President Richard Nixon as part of the
nation’s war on cancer, established the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.
The National Cancer Act, "The War on Cancer," gave the NCI unique autonomy at NIH with special budgetary authority.
The annual budget of NCI, called the bypass budget, be submitted directly to the president, bypassing traditional
approval by the NIH or the Department of HHS required of other NIH institutes.
1973 -- Recombinant DNA was perfected.
The modern era of biotechnology begins when Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of
California at San Francisco successfully recombined ends of bacterial DNA after splicing a toad gene in between. They
called their accomplishment recombinant DNA, but the media preferred the term genetic engineering.
(Photo: Courtesy Stanley Cohen)
Boyer and Cohen's achievement was an advancement upon the techniques developed by Paul Berg, in 1972,
for inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA. Cohen's research at Stanford was with plasmids—the nonchromosomal, circular
units of DNA found in, and exchanged by, bacteria, while Boyer's was restriction enzymes produced by bacteria to counter
invasion by bacteriophages.
1974 -- Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was enacted.
John N. Erlenborn, the ranking Republican on the House Committee, was responsible for
bringing the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to a floor vote, and
is one of the ERISA’s "Founding Fathers." Together with Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), Senator
Pete Williams (D-NJ) and Congressman John Dent (D-PA), Erlenborn crafted provisions and
participated in negotiations that were instrumental to the enactment of ERISA which was - and
remains - the single most important legislation governing employee benefit plans in the United
States creating a growing source of new capital.
(Photos: Jacob Javits and Pete Williams courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office).
1975 -- Monoclonal antibodies were produced.
In 1975, Georges Köhler and César Milstein, showed how monoclonal antibodies can be generated by
isolating individual fused myeloma cells.
Genentech was founded by venture
capitalist Robert Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. In the early 1970s, Boyer
and geneticist Stanley Cohen at Stanford University pioneered recombinant DNA technology.
Within a few short years Swanson and Boyer invented a new industry - biotechnology.
In 1980, Genentech issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and raised $35 million
with an offering that jumped from $35 a share to a high of $88 after less than an
hour on the market. This event was one of the largest stock run-ups ever, and that
event set the stage for future biotechnolgy industry offerings.
1977 -- First human gene was cloned.
Walter Gilbert induced bacteria to synthesize insulin and interferon, and Frederick Sanger
published the complete sequence of phage FX174. The 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry was
awarded jointly to Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert for "for their contributions concerning
the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids, and to Paul Berg for his fundamental
studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.
1980 -- U.S. Supreme Court ruled man-made organism patentable.
Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds five-to-four the patentability of
genetically altered organisms, opening the door to greater patent protection for any
modified life forms.
In 1972, Mohan Chakrabarty, a microbiologist, filed a patent
application, assigned to the General Electric Co. for a human-made genetically engineered
bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. Because of this
property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty's invention
was believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills. The application
asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty's invention of "a bacterium from the genus
Pseudomonas containing therein at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of
said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.
Opinions: Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the opinion
of the Court, in which justices Potter Stewart, Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and
John Paul Stevens joined. William Brennan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Byron
White, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell joined.
1980 -- Bayh-Dole Act provided for university technology transfer.
H.R.6933, Public Law: 96-517, December 12, 1980. A bill to amend title
35 of the United States Code. This Act known as the Bayh-Dole Act provided for the legal transfer of research and
technology originating from U.S. universities and federal laboratories to private
companies for commercialization. Technology transfer offices are now common in
universities and federal laboratories and are the technology foundation for numerous
biotechnology and medical device companies. (Photos: Birch Bayh and
Robert Dole courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office)
1980 -- Baruj Benacerraf and George D. Snell were awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.
On June 8, 1981, Genzyme Corporation, was founded in Boston
by venture capitialist Sheridan Snyder and professor Henry Blair from Tufts University.
The company initially focused on the research and development of therapeutics for enzyme deficiency conditions
that were required for one’s survival but afflict a very small percentage of the world’s population (designated as
"orphan drugs" in 1983).
In 1982, Genzyme in collaboration with the University of Iowa, successfully experimented with human genes in an
effort to develop treatments for cystic fibrosis. In 1986, the company completed it's Initial Public Offering that
set the stage for future expansion. In 1993, the company spun off Genzyme Transgenics, and in 1994
acquired Biosurface Technology that was integrated into the corporation as Genzyme Tissue Repair.
In 1997, Genzyme acquired PharmaGenics to create Genzyme Molecular Oncology.
Today, Genzyme is a diversified enterprise with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion and 10,000 employees in
locations spanning the globe. The company’s products and services are focused on rare inherited disorders,
kidney disease, orthopaedics, transplant, cancer, and diagnostic testing. Genzyme’s commitment to innovation
continues today with a substantial research and development program focused on these fields, as well as immune
disease, infectious disease, and other areas of unmet medical need.
1982 -- Whitehead Institute Founded.
In 1982, The Whitehead Institute, was founded as an
independent research institution affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the efforts
of Edwin C. "Jack" Whitehead pioneer of the modern clinical diagnostics industry. Through its teaching
activities the Whitehead accepts MIT graduate students for research and training in its laboratories and MIT,
considers all Whitehead faculty for appointment to faculty level positions at MIT.
From 1982-84, Jack Whitehead provided $35 million to build and equip the new Whitehead building, as well as $5
million per year in guaranteed income and a substantial endowment in his will. At the time, the total gift
of $135 million was the second largest gift made by a living person in the history of the United States.
Today, the Whitehead Institute is a thriving center for scientific advancement with more than 200 students,
postdoctoral fellows, physicians, and visiting scientists from around the world, and pioneering programs in cancer
research, developmental biology, genetics, infectious disease research and transgenic science.
1983 -- Orphan Drug Act was created.
The Orphan Drug Act
encouraged the research and development of drugs for rare or "orphan" diseases defined as a disease or condition that
affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.
The Orphan Drug Act provided for financial incentives to help companies recover the cost of developing much needed
therapies for small patient populations. The FDA estimates that more than 11 million patients in the U.S. and millions
more around the world, have benefited from this legislation.
1984 -- Alec Jeffreys and technician Vicky Wilson discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.
In 1984, geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and technician Vicky Wilson at the University of
Leicester in England discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.
The new technology was first used in 1985 to resolve a disputed immigration case
that confirmed the identity of a British boy whose family was from Ghana.
In 1988, Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murdering two girls in 1983 and 1986 in
Narborough, Leicestershire, England after his DNA samples matched semen samples
taken from the two dead girls. Jeffreys' work in this case convicted the
killer, but also exonerated Richard Buckland, a suspect who otherwise might
have spent his life in prison. In 1994, Jeffreys' was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II for his services to genetics.
1990 -- Human Genome Project was established.
The U.S. Human Genome
Project was established -- a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S.
Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The main goals of the
Human Genome Project were to provide a complete and accurate sequence of the 3 billion
DNA base pairs that make up the human genome and to find all of the estimated 20,000 to
25,000 human genes. The project, originally planned to last 15 years, was expected
to be completed by 2003 due to rapid technological advances.
1990 -- Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas were awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.
1993 -- Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded.
Biotechnology Industry
Organization is the world's largest organization to serve and represent the
biotechnology industry. BIO's leadership and service-oriented guidance have helped advance
the industry and bring the benefits of biotechnology to people everywhere.
1993 -- Kary B. Mullis was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
PCR allows scientists to quickly replicate small strands of DNA, greatly simplifying
the sequencing and cloning of genes. First presented in 1985, PCR has become one of
the most widespread methods of analyzing DNA. Notably, PCR requires the heat-stable enzyme
Taq (Thermus Aquaticus) which originated from hot springs located in Yellowstone
National Park.
2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence was published.
The February 16 issue of Science and February
15 issue of Nature contained the working draft of the human genome
sequence (U.S. Human Genome
Project). Nature papers included initial analysis of the descriptions of the sequence
generated by the publicly sponsored Human Genome Project, while Science publications focused
on the draft sequence reported by the private company, Celera Genomics.
2003 -- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was founded.
The Broad Intitute was founded in 2003 and launched in
2004 through the generosity and vision of Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad.
The Institute was founded through donations of $100 million in 2003, and another $100 million in 2005
by the Broad family. The Institute evolved from a decade of successful research collaborations among
scientists in the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) communities, and was
created to facilitate collaboration and organization of cross-discipinary projects at any scale. The Institute's
main mission is to translate knowledge of the human genome into new forms of medicines.
In September 2008, the Broads donated another $400 million for genetic research at the Broad Institute,
just three years after the couple gave $200 million to establish the foundation. The endowment will fund
genetic research through 2014 and allow the Institute to become a permanent, non-profit organization. The
Institute, which employs more than 1,200 researchers, is overseen by Harvard University and MIT.
Strong believers in higher education, the Broad Foundations have made a major contribution to the
School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA toward the construction of The Edythe L. and Eli Broad Art Center.
Mr. Broad is a member of the board of trustees of CalTech, where the Broads gave the
cornerstone gift to create the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. Mr. Broad also
served as chairman of the board of trustees of Pitzer College, and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the
California State University system. In 1991, the Broads endowed The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli
Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University where Mr. Broad graduated cum laude in 1954.
Eli Broad built two Fortune 500 companies from the ground up over a five-decade career in business. He is
chairman of AIG Retirement Services Inc. (formerly SunAmerica Inc.) and founder-chairman of KB Home
(formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation). Today, the Broad family’s commitment to philanthropy and
community is both deep and wide-ranging. It includes ongoing leadership roles in art, education, science
and civic development.
2003 -- Roderick MacKinnon was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
2007 -- The National Institutes of Health established the Human Microbiome Project.
On Dec. 19, 2007, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative, was established by the National
Institutes of Health with the mission of generating resources that would enable the comprehensive characterization of
the human microbiome and analysis of its role in human health and disease.
The HMP is the collection of all
the microorganisms living in association with the human body, including eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria and viruses.
Bacteria in an average human body number ten times more than human cells, for a total of about 1000 more genes
than are present in the human genome.
Learn about the history of the life science industry in other states:
If you are aware of a notable event or person at your company or organization
that should be included in Massachusetts Life Science History, please e-mail us
at: suggestions@inforesource.org.
The 
It is estimated that between 25 and 40 million people died
from the the influenza outbreak that began in 1918, swept across America in a week and
around the world in three months. In all, between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans
--civilians and soldiers-- died from the influenza, more than were lost in World War I,
II, and the Korean and Viet Nam wars combined.
Listen to 
The 
On Dec. 19, 2007, the 
